Ministry compiles ‘Remember When’ –

SATURDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2011

The minister made the announcement yesterday during the ministry’s launch of its “Remember When” Exhibition at the Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA).

The “Remember When” exhibition is a venture of the ministry to preserve the country’s folk culture and heritage while educating the public on its history and providing enjoyment.

The minister said, “Remembering as a people is very important to the survival of a culture. Our shared heritage creates a collective understanding of who we are, as Trinbagonians.” Peters continued that the preservation of the recordings of our culture would help define who we are as a people. “These human treasures cannot be hung on the walls of museums, but they are indeed precious, as they would help us remember who we are as a people, and define our culture as distinctly Trinbagonian.” said Peters

He continued that the ministry has been in the process of storing data which would be used in the proposed institute.

“The ministry owns a storehouse of intangible artifacts which reflects directly, an image of ourselves as we have lived over the past 40 years. For two and a half years , the Division of Culture has been digitising materials that would one day be stored in the institute.” said Peters

Artifacts of long ago folklore songs, stories, books, newspapers, art, journals, music and calypsonians were on display at the exhibition as well as digitised memories that were previously stored by the now defunct National Cultural Council. The ministry also launched a web-page which stores a compilation of audio-visual material, manuscripts, and photographs from as far back as the 1880s. The “Remember When” web-page, according to Peters, is unlike any other cultural e-based repository in this country. The web-page would be open to the public in three months time.

Guests such as Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool, and historian Bridget Brereton, and Chair of the National Commission for UNESCO, Dr Kris Rampersad, were present at the exhibition.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism, Jennifer Jones, said the exhibition would give citizens the opportunity to compare the music, literature and folklore from then to now. The exhibition would be open to the general public from today until September 24 from 9am to 5pm on Mondays to Fridays and 10am to 6pm on weekends.

For Mroe on Caribbean Heritage go to https://krisrampersad.com/

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